MY AFTERNOONS WITH MARGUERITTE

Ma's View:

Pepe didn't see this one due to a hockey meeting - and he missed a beauty!

This is a delightful story of Margueritte (with 2 t's because her father couldn't spell), a 95 yo lady who shares her passion for literature with an illiterate odd-job man, Germain, a gentle giant whose childhood bereft of affection has not taken from him his love of humanity.  Gerard Depardieu is tailor made for the role, immediately winning our empathy and affection with his bumbling attempts to help, console, or cheer up his friends who for the most part make fun of him.  Flashbacks to his childhood show that it has always been so - he bears the brunt of  his single mother's resentment, his teacher's mockery and his fellow students' jokes.  The one bright spot in his life is his girlfriend, Annette, who loves and accepts him just as he is; she wants to start a family with him but he feels himself unworthy to be a father, probably due to never have known his father, nor experienced a loving parent-child relationship with his mother.

Germain leads a simple life, growing vegies, doing odd jobs, going to the pub, taking care of his mother (even though she upbraids hims still!) and passing his afternoons in the park where he is on first name terms with the 19 pidgeons.  It is here he meets Margueritte, played by 96yo Gisele Casadesus, with the consummate ease of the veteran actress that she is.  Margueritte is an elderly lady whose work as a scientist has taken her all over the world and as she shares her love of literature with Germain, his vision and understanding of the world begins to expand as does his confidence and belief in his own worth.

The only fault I could find in this movie is the age difference between Germain and Annette - she seemed far too young for me to believe she would be madly in love with this fat, balding 50 something labourer - and Departdieu actually looks older than that.  She looked no more than 25.

Nevertheless, this is a truly delightful, heartwarming story.

My score:  8.5/10


Pepe'sView:

I finally caught up with this movie on 25 April and I am so pleased I did.  This is a wonderful gentle loving movie.  The director, Jean Becker, has imbued every scene with incredible tenderness that the beauty and gentleness pours from the screen enveloping the cinema.  There is not a scene in this movie that jars and the performance of Gerard Depardieu is absolutely wonderful.  Margueritte is also perfect in the role and given her age is a living treasure.
The story follows Germain as he is the brunt of jokes by almost everyone in the town until he meets Margueritte in the park and she begins to share her ove of literature and wisdom with him.  Although he cannot read himself he is able to visualise the scenes in the novels being read to him.  His mother treats him woefully and his girlfriend who loves him wants him to father her child but at the beginning of the film he is afraid because he is unsure what sort of a father he would make.  By the end of the film, he has been given confidence and been shown respect by Margueritte and increasingly by his friends so that he is excited when he is told that he is to be a father.
Yes, this is a feel good movie - but one with such class and sensitivity that I am happy to admit that I left the theatre with a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye.

My Score:  9/10